I didn’t have anything to do with talking to Google, as I was way too busy with Teaching Sells. But here’s what I was told about discussions between b5media and a Google representative.

b5: “Umm… Google?”

Google: “Yes?”

b5: “Is this PageRank thing supposed to penalize bloggers who are in blog networks?”

Google: “No, this is a warning to those who sell links.”

b5: “Umm… well, Copyblogger has never sold links.”

Google: “Really?”

b5: “Really.”

Google: “Whoops. Well, we have a problem.”

b5: “What’s that?”

Google: “We’re fresh out of PR 6 designations for this update.”

b5: “What? Are you kidding?”

Google: “How does a nice PR 7 sound?”

b5: “Let me ask Brian.” (pretends to call me)

b5: “Ok, he says that’s fine.”

Google: “Great. Sorry again.”

Note: The part about Google being out of PR 6 designations is a joke, as is the part about having to “give” me a 7. The 7 is the Page Rank the blog would have had anyway but for the “warning” that wasn’t applicable to me. Just to be clear.

Ok, please please please forgive me for this complete newbie question. I read this blog for the copywriting hints, but I have no idea what this PR stuff stands for? Does PR7 mean page rank 7? Does that mean you’re 7th on googles page?

Sanny, I’m not sure any of us really know what Page Rank really means anymore, if anything. But some people still look at a site’s Page Rank for its home page as an indicator of how trusted and linked to that site is.

It’s not anything to focus on, really. But since several hundred blogs intimated that Copyblogger was penalized for selling links, I thought it appropriate to clear the air.

I am wondering if basing a blogs “value” by number of RSS Subscribers instead of Google PR would work better. After all, wouldn’t the amount of subscribers to a rss feed be a better gauge of the relevance and quality of the content as opposed to an algorithm? Just a thought that wrote about today at NoviceSeo.com

Any idea what someone that has previously been selling links, but has since though better of it, should do? Is there a way of notifying Google that you’ve come clean? How did B5 go about getting their ear? If they could accidentally pummel copyblogger, then they could equally well continue pummeling other sites that have been selling links, even after they’ve cleaned up their act. I’m not really concerned about PR, but am worried what the next phase of their campaign might entail.

Fantastic! Much better than all the loom and gloom thats been hovering over the Google slap down. It is good to know that content connects with readers will always trump a humanly devised pagerank rating.

Page Rank has always been something that has confused me immensly. I see sites of excellent content with a lot of user response and Page Ranks of one or two. I then will find a site that is very basic without a lot of activity ranking 4 or 5. I have also conducted search terms on popular keyword phrases thinking that the #1 positions would have really high page ranks and sometimes they don’t . My site has a page rank of zero and I work hard at it getting contact and resourcing as much as possible and I remain at zero. I just kind of give up. PR in my opinion is over rated. As long as we get good google rankings and lots of search engine traffic then what does it matter what our PR is?